1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to switch operation processing apparatus and method, for use with a manually operable switch and a controlled device, for controlling the controlled device depending on switch operation of the manually operable switch. The apparatus and method are useful for various purposes, and in particular, for application to switches and devices provided on an endoscope system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there have been commonly used electronic endoscope systems including a color video system which produces video signals representing a high-resolution color image of an object to be observed through the endoscope. A typical electronic endoscope system includes an endoscope processor unit, an electronic unit, serving to control various operations of the electronic endoscope system as well as to process the video signals received from an image sensing device of the video system. A typical endoscope process or unit has a control panel on which a large number of controls and switches are provided, including a control for adjustment in the intensity level of the illumination beam for illuminating an object to be observed through the endoscope, an enhancement on/off switch for activating and inactivating an image enhancer for the contour correction of the image of the object, a set of controls for obtaining the color balance among red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color signals, etc.
The operator of such an electronic endoscope system has to be skilled for appropriately operating or manipulating the large number of controls and switches provided on the system. If poorly skilled, the operator could make unintentional, inadvertent operations of the controls and switches. For example, poorly skilled operators often make an unintentional, inadvertent touch to the image enhancement on/off switch to inactivate the image enhancer. In such a case, a sudden deterioration in quality of an image displayed on a monitor screen of the electronic endoscope system may occur, and the operator may even erroneously recognize it as a failure of the video system in the electronic endoscope system.